“They taught me how to play baseball here in Oakland. They taught me how to have fun. I don’t miss playing in Kansas City. I miss Oakland.”
–Johnny Damon, Red Sox outfielder, on returning to Oakland
Losing David Justice isn’t good news, considering I’m not a big Scott Hatteberg guy, but I am a believer when it comes to Eric Byrnes, so I guess I’m happy. Outfield defense is always going to be an issue for a unit that has Terrence Long in center field and either Justice or Jeremy Giambi in a corner. While I’m not arguing for Byrnes to play every day, he does give the A’s a hitter who puts hard-hit balls into play, who can cover an outfield corner well, and basically give the bottom of the lineup someone who can help score some of the other more walk-inclined hitters batting higher up.
After a rough start to the season, the Anaheim Angels have taken to beating up the teams outside their division. Granted, they’ve gotten a healthy dose of the Blue Jays, but with a sweep of the White Sox over the weekend, the Angels are now 20-16, a mark that breaks down as 6-12 within their division, and 14-4 against everyone else. They’ve jumped into second place, 5 1/2 games behind the Mariners.
The columnist is sick, he’s cranky, and he’s under medication. Therefore, he disavows responsibility for anything appearing in this space until further notice. — After a rough start to the season, the Anaheim Angels have taken to beating up the teams outside their division. Granted, they’ve gotten a healthy dose of the Blue Jays, but…
RELIEF "We’re going to try to put something together and show people what we’re made of. Everybody knew what we were about when we were losing because we were all over TV and all over the newspapers. This is our moment to show people what we’re really made of." —Hal McRae, Devil Rays manager, after…